"We
need never quarrel with God because we cannot do everything, if he only permits us to do
this one thing; for sowing the good seed is a work which will need all our wit, our
strength, our love, our care."

"...we have the promise of Jesus that along with the call to repent and believe the good news, God in Jesus continues to equip and shape us as hearers who have all we need as God hears our prayer and the kingdom continues to take shape among us and in our world."

"Investing our lives in the church that seeks to bear witness to God's realm of peace and freedom and justice in this world requires us to step out in faith that what we're doing will eventually bear fruit—even if we may not see it. It means recognizing we're in over our heads, but we can trust that God is working in and through us constantly."

"The passage as a whole emphasizes the hiddenness and smallness of the quiet beginnings of the kingdom and also underscores the sense in which the sower does not make the kingdom happen by force of will..."

"John Dominic Crossan is very informative on the mustard seed’s output, noting that it is not so ‘large’ as it is ‘invasive’ and therefore its shoots take over (perhaps like the kudzu that is menacing the Southeast of the US.)"

"So what if we sent people out this week with a mission, Working Preacher. What if we sent them out to look for those places where's God's kingdom is sneaking in, or spreading out, or taking over little corners of our world?"

"There
is no easy take-home message for us in these parables. They ask that
we engage our imaginations to follow the possibilities and
incongruities that we distinguish between a world where everything
is planned, linear, and logical, to one filled with mysteries and
surprises into which a sovereign God invites us."

"Is God ruling now or not? Perhaps we are looking in
the wrong places -- staring up in the sky for tall trees, instead of
looking on the ground for common weeds -- and maybe we do the same thing
with people."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours,
Mark 4:26-34, David Ewart, 2009.

"As the parables themselves have already
explained, the Kingdom of God is not dependant on our getting it
right - or even getting it at all! If even the original 12 need
extra help because they don't understand, this is a group that I can
aspire to imitate!"

"Jesus? parables cannot be understood by standing
apart from them with arms folded in neutral objectivity. They can
only be understood by 'entering' into them, allowing their stories
to lay claim on us. How do we drop our guard so parables may have
their intended effect? The answer, repeated throughout Mark 4, is
that we enter parables by hearing."